


EreJeanMarco Week 2015

by fenfyre (Jace)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Boys Being Silly, Competition, Dancing, Domestic Fluff, Holidays, M/M, Theatre, gift wrapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-08 06:30:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5487086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace/pseuds/fenfyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of my EreJeanMarco week entries, mainly domestic holiday fluff</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dance

**Author's Note:**

> A big Thank You to my dear [Tami](http://tamiflu.co.vu/) who helped me brainstorm and came up with the cutest ideas for our three favorite boys!

“Eren, honey…” Jean perked up when he heard Marco’s voice carry through the house, not able to ignore the distressed edge it had again. That wasn’t good. It had taken him ages to solve the last crisis, which had only cost them more valuable preparation time.  
Eren’s answer was muffled and came from upstairs where he should be cleaning the bathroom or tidying the bedroom or at least hide some of the things they wouldn’t want their guests stumbling over.  
  
“Please tell me you didn’t use all our hazelnuts when you made your cookies yesterday?” Jean shot a glance over at the cookies in question, cooled and stacked decoratively onto little plates, one on the coffee table, the other on the sideboard. They were pretty, decorated with icing of different colors, chocolate chips and yes, halves of hazelnuts.  
He abandoned the duster by the fireplace and went over to stick his head into the kitchen instead where Marco had pulled open most of their cabinets in a frantic search.  
  
Before he could say anything Eren answered, voice not as muffled, he probably moved to the top of the stairs to shout down to them.  
“Yeah, I did. Told you we’d need new ones when you went shopping earlier.” Marco stopped rearranging one of their drawers and reached into his pocket, quickly pulling out a strip of paper. Scanning it he frowned and shook his head.  
“No…”  
“What?” The stairs were creaking now as Eren came to join them in the kitchen, donning a pair of bright pink rubber gloves. Bathroom it was then.  
  
“You … I didn’t put it on the shopping list so you didn’t tell me…”, Marco murmured, holding out the piece of paper for Eren to check. Frowning Eren read over it himself, then shrugged.  
“Yeah, but I did, though..”  
That right there was Jean’s cue. They really didn’t need another shouting match over stupid stuff just because all of them were a little stressed and nervous. He slid into the kitchen and snatched the paper from Marco’s hands, smoothly gliding between his boyfriends.  
“What’s up?” He read over the shopping list. Indeed, no hazelnuts. But that wasn’t the point.  
  
“I wanted to start with dessert but we’re all out of hazelnuts thanks to – ”  
“Nahh!”, Jean interrupted. Loudly. It wasn’t often that Marco’s voice drifted into that accusing, aggressive tone.  
But when it did he tended to say things he came to deeply regret later when he’d calmed down. So it was best to not even let him finish that sentence. The deep worry line between Marco’s eyebrows as he looked over at Eren was another strong hint. They were just strung a little tightly these days.  
“It was a misunderstanding”, Jean insisted, pocketing the offending piece of paper himself. “Just let it go. Let’s focus instead, okay?” He waited for the tiny, affirming nod, for Marco’s expression to soften a bit before he stepped back to take a look at the handwritten recipe on their kitchen table.  
  
“Okay, you need hazelnuts, no problem. I can run to the store real quick…”  
“No, it’s closed…”, Eren interjected from the side, moving to stand next to Jean and read over the recipe as well. Jean hummed. Dammit.  
“No hazelnuts then. Uh, can you take something else instead? Like…”  
“We still got skinned almonds?”, his boyfriend supplied, shooting Marco a warm little smile and Jean jumped onto that possibility.  
“See, skinned almonds. How’s that sound?”  
“Yeah, it’s basically the same, right?”  
Marco looked at them for a moment, unblinking, then closed his eyes and huffed, one hand coming up to rub at his temple.  
  
“It’s basically … no, Eren. No it’s not.” He opened his eyes again and shit, were those tears? Shit, shit, shit. What happened? Jean took a hesitant step toward his boyfriend, unsure if hugging would make it worse, so he just kept hovering somewhere in front of him.  
“This is my mom’s recipe, it’s her favorite desert”, Marco stuttered, blinking hard against the wetness shining in his eyes. “She asked me to make it for her and if I fuck it up she’ll…”  
So that was what this was about. Jean couldn’t hold back the little smile tugging at his lips as he closed the gap between himself and Marco to wrap his trembling boyfriend in a tight hug.  
  
“She’ll do what?”, he murmured into Marco’s hair, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Disown you? Marco, baby, she agreed to spend Christmas Eve with not only one but two of your gay boyfriends and you think half a cup of almonds will tip her off?”  
Marco shrugged, breaths wet and stuttering as he carefully moved his arms to return the hug.  
“I just … I…”  
  
“I know you want everything to be perfect”, Eren said from the side and made both their heads turn carefully to look at him. He was took his pink rubber gloves off and threw them towards the sink before he stepped closer and looped an arm around Marco’s waist as well.  
“But it doesn’t have to be.”  
“Yeah”, Jean quickly agreed, pressing another kiss to Marco’s cheek. “We wanna impress our parents. But the most important thing is that they’re even coming at all.” Eren hummed at that, raising onto his toes to nuzzle Marco’s face as well.  
  
It had indeed taken them a long time to convince their parents that it might be a good idea to meet at their house this year. But in the end they had agreed it was time to get to know each other after all this time. Well, Eren’s dad hadn’t and he wouldn’t be coming tonight, but he was an ass anyway and Jean couldn’t shake the feeling that even Eren was glad he wouldn’t have to deal with him.  
Marco made a little noise and moved one of his arms to pull Eren close as well, kissing first his, then Jean’s temple. Looked like they succeeded in calming him. And that only meant one thing.  
  
“You know what time it is…”, he murmured, a slight lull to his voice and he extracted himself from the tight hold of his boyfriend and stalked over to the little radio on the fridge. He ignored the two deep sighs behind him as well as the muttered “Oh god…” “Jean, please no…” as he turned on the little device and tuned it.  
“Shhh, if I got enough time for a dance break while being elbow deep in some dude’s guts we have enough time for a dance break four hours before our parents arrive”, he insisted, turning up the volume just at the beginning of one of those cheesy, happy pop songs. Exactly what they needed right now.  
“So shut up, one song, go.”  
  
A few months ago Jean had started incorporating the dance breaks he knew from work into their daily lives.  
It was a good way to de-stress after complications had arisen and been dealt with in the OR and it was just as useful at home, after a fight or someone getting bad news or more recently, to get rid of the everlasting holiday tension. Marco wasn’t as big a fan of their newest routine and Eren kept bitching about it but they both couldn’t deny that it was working. It was much easier to go back to normal after dancing for a few minutes than it was with emotions and energy still pent-up inside them.  
That might be the only reason his boyfriends didn’t just leave the kitchen when he cranked up the volume even more as the bass set in and then turned around, moving to the quick, light beat.  
  
“Come on Marco!”, he took his boyfriend’s hand, and pulled him free from Eren’s embrace so he had room to move. “I know you can shake that nice, round ass of yours!”  
“God, Jean…”, Marco chuckled, already loosening up a little as Jean moved him to sway to the beat, reaching out to drag a thumb over that plump bottom lip.  
“Sugar lips, angel eyes…”, he sang along, voice pitched too deep to be anything but mocking and it made Marco giggle even more.  
The laugh turned into a high yelp though when Jean moved around him to give that bubble butt a quick slap before making his way over to Eren, hips swaying and steps light. His boyfriend was watching him, weary, with his arms crossed, but it wasn’t like he could hide that smirk tugging at his lips when Jean rolled his hips a few times and began tugging one of Eren’s arms loose.  
  
“She’s optimistic … something, something lights!” Eren snorted at the improvised lyrics and rolled his eyes but didn’t resist when Jean pulled him close to swing them around the kitchen a few times.  
“Before you play with fire, do think twice…”  
“And if you get burned don’t be surprised.” Jean hadn’t expected Eren to retort, especially not as assured or with a hard pinch to his ass. But here they were, hips suddenly flush, rolling to the insistent beat and suddenly it was getting hot and this was not the goal of a dance break, not at all.  
So Jean twisted out of Eren’s hold – they might have some time for a song but definitely not for a quickie in the kitchen, especially since even their quickies weren’t really quick.  
  
He turned to Marco again instead who was back to just nodding his head to the beat and took both his hands this time, encouraging him to move around more, swing his arms and get more loose as the song went on and after a while Marco began to smile at him, soft and at ease and did a little twirl underneath their arms.  
Something in Jean’s chest eased up at the sight and he moved them closer toward Eren, handing Marco over to their boyfriend. He watched them dance together like that for a while, giggling and getting more and more silly in their moves, using the upbeat song to get rid of some of the tension, until all of them were singing at the top of their lungs:  
“Sugar, how you get so fly? Sugar how you get so fly? Sugar how you get so fly? But you won’t get me tonight!”  
  
Eren’s pitched incredibly high at the last note, shrilling through the kitchen, while Marco stayed steady, carrying the tone out almost professionally. They kept moving in exaggerated moves until the song tapered out and they came to a halt, all three of them a little breathless.  
Jean casually threw the eggbeater he had grabbed as a microphone back into the bowl sitting on the counter. He couldn’t help but feel a little smug as he regarded his grinning boyfriends, then moved to shut off the radio again.  
“See, that was good, wasn’t it? Back to work now.”  
He gave both his boys a quick peck on the lips before disappearing into the living room again. Crisis averted.


	2. Fairytale

“Shit, I’m so nervous I’m gonna puke this time for real”, Marco read the message on the screen aloud, leaning towards Eren who only scoffed at the phone propped between them on the armrest.  
“What a drama queen. He’s been doing this for how long, ten years?”  
“Eleven”, Marco corrected with a sigh, typing out a soothing reply about how Jean should try to relax because he would be brilliant, as every year. “Also he’s the drama prince this time, remember?”

“Aw yeah…” The furrow to Eren’s brow quickly melted away, replaced by a smile as he glanced to the stage up front. Heavy red curtain still closed, lights in the auditorium still turned up. “Our fancy prince Charming. He’s gonna die when he sees us.”  
“Good thing we got seats in the back then. Wouldn’t want that to happen while he’s on stage…”  
For all the years they’d known each other, Eren and Marco had never actually met their mutual friend Jean in person.

It had all started on some virtual battlefield in an online game where they’d proceeded to kick their opponents asses round after round and then decided to add each other so they could do it all over again the next day.  
Over the course of the next few months their characters’ names had changed into their actual ones, game contact information had turned into email addresses and skype names and blog urls and before Marco had known what was happening he’d been on the two hour train ride over to Eren to visit him for the first time.  
The distance hadn’t been great enough to keep them apart for long, especially not after that strange attraction developed and they “kind of accidentally started dating a little” – the words Eren had used to break the news to Jean.

There had been something missing, though. Not that they weren’t happy, on the contrary. They wouldn’t be able to tolerate the distance otherwise, always making the best of the time they had together, skyping and sending each other little packages once in a while.  
But it just didn’t feel complete without Jean. The ten hours between them as well as their busy schedules once they had moved on to college had prevented them from meeting up in person, even though their online friendship blossomed each month a little more.  
They were about to change that tonight. It had been Eren’s idea, driving up here to surprise Jean on the premiere of his annual play the first Sunday in advent.

The deep chime of a bell announced the nearing start and the excited chatter of children all around them was slowly falling silent as the lights were dimmed. With one last glance at the screen – no new messages, switched to silent – Marco slid his phone back into his pocket and reached for Eren’s hand instead, feeling his boyfriend weave their fingers together, squeezing.  
When it was dead silent in the auditorium, aside from the occasional giggle, the bell chimed one last time and the curtain was lifted.

A spot appeared on a person sitting to the side of the stage in a huge, cushy armchair opening a big book with shiny golden letters. “Snow White” it said on the cover. With a loud, calming voice they began to read:  
“Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood…”

The actress playing Snow White was a beautiful girl with short, jet black hair, dark eyes and a soft, clear voice that projected effortlessly through the huge auditorium when she started to sing while pretending to scrub the stage.  
It was a cute opening scene, her talking to different kids dressed as white pigeons and squirrels, telling them about her step-mother, the queen, who treated her like a servant.  
Continuing her light song she stepped over to a well to ‘wash out’ the dirty rags and that was when Jean entered the stage.

Eren squeezed Marco’s fingers hard, shifting in his seat to lean forward a bit and Marco knew exactly what he was thinking.  
Jean was stunningly beautiful. Of course, he always was. With that sharp jawline, high cheekbones and honey eyes. But like this, wearing a heavy costume in shades of royal blue, complete with scarlet cloak billowing behind him and a shiny golden crown perched atop his head, make-up cleverly highlighting his bone-structure and making his eyes pop … he was gorgeous. Little girls all around them in the audience were sighing and swooning and Marco got them, he really did. Because that on stage was a perfect prince Charming if he’d ever seen one.  
The first time hearing Jean’s voice without the distortion of the connection and a couple hundred miles too many between them was … Marco wasn’t ashamed to admit it made his breath stutter for a second. He could feel Eren was the same.

The rest of the play passed in a blur, Eren’s hand never leaving Marco’s as they watched Snow White getting taken out into the woods, arriving at the dwarfs’ house – who were played by a bunch of adorable little children in too big costumes – and coming to live with them, her eating the poisoned apple and getting kissed awake at the end by Jean … Eren made a tiny disgruntled noise at that but was smiling again after Marco pressed a kiss to his cheek in the dark of the theater’s back row.

After the show the actors were giving autographs and taking pictures with their young fans in the foyer. As expected, most of the children were crowding around Jean and the beautiful star of the play posing as happy couple, signing theater tickets and lifting up laughing kids to get their pictures taken.  
Even though there were loads of children blocking their path to Jean, Eren and Marco still had an excellent view over the tops of children heads and settled on leaning back and watching for a while.  
It was unusual to see Jean like that, acting all carefree and warm, smiling at the pretty girl to his side, joking with the children and ruffling their hair.

“Oh my god”, Eren murmured after some while as they were watching Jean lift a tiny girl and let her kiss his cheek, the blush rising to his face at that barely visible underneath the make-up. “This is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen … we can tease him forever with this!” Marco couldn’t help but snort and swat a hand at Eren.  
“Don’t you dare!”, he warned, only partly serious. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop Eren from making stupid comments and tease Jean a little but that was 90% of their communication anyway and somehow they were still friends (and very decidedly, not subtly pining for each other), so he wasn’t about to mess with that.

It took some time until Jean had a little break from posing and giving autographs, a group of girls crowding Snow White and completely ignoring him so he took a few steps back and let is eyes wander through the room, only the barest hint of a tired slouch to his shoulders. That was when their eyes met, for the very first time in person.  
It was just a brief second, Jean’s gaze gliding over to Eren, expression detached and distant before he registered whom he’d just lain eyes on and went completely rigid, color draining from his face as his gaze flicked between them and he blinked a few times.  
Next to Marco Eren raised a hand for a lazy salute and he could almost feel the smugness radiating from his boyfriend.

Nudging him again Marco whispered: “Don’t be an ass, babe…”  
“Ugh he looks so cute I wanna fucking eat him.”  
“Stop swearing around children!”  
“But it’s true, just look at his dam– … darn face…”  
“Shhh, he’s coming over!”  
And Jean was. Carefully navigating his way through the remaining group of children and promising he’d be back soon, he just needed to do a thing … and then he was standing in front of them, perfect picture of a fairytale prince, only a lot more nervous than Charming ever was.  
“You … you could have told me you were…”, he stuttered, voice so different from what it had been on stage, much thinner and a little wavering. Marco wanted to step forward and hug him, but settled on a warm smile instead.

“Wouldn’t have been a surprise then, would it?”  
“Also didn’t want you to actually puke from nervousness”, Eren interjected with a wide grin and Marco had to swat at him again.  
“Uh well … you succeeded? In both…” Seeing Jean confused and stuttery was even more unusual than seeing him happy and kind. Of course Eren had to go and make it worse.  
“Kinda really wanna shove my tongue into your mouth right now.” There it was, the whole unspoken truth, out in the open for all of them to see. But it seemed like they were prepared for this. Had been for months.  
“Yeah…”, Jean breathed, raising one hand to straighten the plastic crown still sitting in his hairspray clumped blond locks. “But the kids need to think I’m boning the princess, so…”

It was Eren’s turn to snort at that and even Marco couldn’t stifle his giggle quickly enough.  
“I’m sure that’s all they think about”, Eren drawled and grabbed for Marco’s hand, pulling him forward as he took a step towards Jean, his voice dipping lower when he spoke again. “Later then?”  
Jean’s eyes flitted between them again, lingering on Marco’s face for a long second until he nodded, quickly licking his lips.  
“Later. You got any plans for the evening?”

“We were thinking about dinner…”, Marco hummed, warm smile not having left his lips. “And if you’re up for it … we also got a nice hotel room close by? More privacy than you taking us home, you know?”  
“Uh…” Jean swallowed again, then reached out with both hands to quickly run them over their arms. “Sounds great. Just … give me half an hour to finish up and go change, yes?”  
“Sure”, Eren smiled, a little too innocent to not be planning something. And of course he added: “But keep the crown, I like it.”


	3. Sweet

It was far from the first time Marco came home to a battlefield where he’d expected their shared apartment. The ridiculous competitiveness Eren and Jean showed around each other extended to a lot more mundane things than who could hold the perfect presentation, get the best mark on a term paper or make the most tips in one night.  
No, they had started to compete about everything.

Some of it fun to watch, like the time they wanted to find out who could do more push-ups in a row. Though Marco had shut the both of them up when he unexpectedly entered the competition himself and proved it was neither of his boyfriends.  
Then there was the useful ones, basically anything that involved the both of them cooking anything, because Marco always got to eat and didn’t even have to take care of the dishes most of the time since he could turn even that into a game with the right words.  
He enjoyed being a bit mischievous from time to time.

Then there were the ridiculous challenges. Stacking forks to create the highest tower, Mario Kart while blindfolded, – Eren had wanted to prove just how good he was at rainbow road … he wasn’t, but neither was Jean – eating the most chicken nuggets in under a minute… Most of them all in good spirits and always a nice way to spend the evening when nothing else was planned.

But sometimes Eren and Jean tended to … overshoot a little. Friendly banter turning almost vicious as they scrambled to outdo each other. Marco had come home to more than one wrestling match intense enough to already having knocked over furniture.  
There had also been that one, very memorable night a few weeks into their relationship where they competed about making Marco come the most and the quickest. It had started as playful competition but soon turned into something else entirely that still had been fun but lead them to have a very serious conversation the next morning.  
They had that point long since sorted out though and established the ground rule of no rivalry in bed by punishment of sleeping on the couch. That worked surprisingly well.

Yes, Marco had come upon a lot of ridiculousness and competition walking into their apartment. But never had it looked quite as bad as it did when he came home from an evening lecture a cold night just before winter break.  
The chairs around the dining table were knocked over, all of them, papers and magazines and articles of clothing littering the floor.  
Their advent wreath was hovering precariously close to the edge of the coffee table, almost tipping over and following the same fate as one of their cheap mugs that lay cracked on the floor. Marco nudged the wreath onto the table again, carefully collecting the mug and the few shards broken out of it.  
The kitchen wasn’t fairing any better. Drawers pulled out, the fridge door wide open and contents in a disarray … sighing deeply Marco went to close it.

This would have been the point where he should suspect a break-in and call the cops. But he was so used to shit like this happening around his two wonderful boyfriends, he didn’t even think about it. Besides he could hear angry voices in the back, judging by their echo probably coming from the bathroom.  
Taking another deep, calming breath he headed back to the hallway, determined to break up whatever nonsense Eren and Jean had gotten themselves into this time, when he stepped into a puddle. Jumping back Marco grimaced, making a tiny, disgusted noise. Great, now his sock was soaked. With … a white liquid pooling on their kitchen tiles? At least the scattered items of clothing all over the living room would make sense that way.

He hobbled down the hall, careful not to make too much of a mess with his soaked sock and could soon hear Eren’s voice, shrill and breathless:  
“Imma shove so much of this disgusting stuff down your throat, your grand kids are gonna taste it!” That was … weird dirty talk?  
“I swear to god Eren if you…!” Judging by the tone of Jean’s voice, not dirty talk. It was a low growl full of vengeful fury before it drowned in a loud splashing sound and a surprised cry.

Marco was very careful as he slowly opened the bathroom door a bit to peek inside. Eren was hovering in front of the tub to reach inside and grab Jean’s flailing arms who was half sitting, half lying, one leg kicking out as he tried to shake off Eren’s grip.  
The shower was running for some reason, Jean’s pants and hair completely soaked, bare chest glistening wet. Eren wasn’t fairing much better, water running down his chest and into the front of his boxers, hair sticking up wildly as he shoved Jean deeper into the tub, muscles in his back flexing.

Jean was shrieking now, kicking and thrashing harder, then suddenly started sputtering and coughed and coughed as Eren backed off at last with a wide grin.  
“You fucking asshole!” Jean was still coughing, wheezing out the words as he scrambled to get up to his knees in the slippery tub, doubling over and choking. “You fucking…”

If the whole disaster before hadn’t been Marco’s cue to intervene, this was it. He threw the door open and crossed the bathroom in two strides, ignoring Eren for now to drop to his knees right next to the bathtub, not caring about the big puddles of water on the floor.  
With steady hands he helped his boyfriend sit, pushing wet hair out of his eyes and cradling one cheek in his palm, the other gripping a shoulder in support.

“Everything alright?” His voice was calmer and more neutral than it maybe should have been. Yes, he had seen much chaos during their relationship. It was too early to get mad if he didn’t even know yet what had happened.  
Jean stopped coughing and wheezing after a while, both of his hands still covering his nose and mouth as he blinked up at Marco with teary eyes that were still screaming murder as much as they could.  
Marco was careful when he reached out to pry one of these hands away, then had to try hard not to flinch way from the sight.  
“What…?”

There was white liquid running from Jean’s nose, down over his lips and chin. His boyfriend was quick to wipe at it with a wet sleeve of his shirt, though he didn’t manage to get rid of it completely.  
“Whipped cream”, Jean rasped, voice still raw from all the coughing. “Eren’s a disgusting fuck.”  
“Hey, you started it!”, Eren protested from behind them, anger not completely covering the childish amusement about apparently getting back at Jean.  
Sighing deeply Marco reached out to turn off the shower first, then over to rip off some toilet paper and offer it to Jean who took it to clean himself properly, blowing his nose a few times.

Then Marco got to his feet and slowly turned around, very deliberately crossing his arms as he just looked at Eren who he only just noticed, was covered in white smears. He was indeed holding one of their spray cans of whipped cream that had been meant for hot chocolate. At least he had the decency to blush a little.  
“We uh … wanted to surprise you?”  
“You succeeded?”  
Eren’s lips twitched, then he shook his head and quickly bit his lip.

“Nah we … we wanted to do the sexy thing? Like get all cheesy with the whipped cream? I found it in the fridge and we got started a little and … then Jean had to go and be an asshole about it…”  
Marco ignored the protesting sound Jean made, still busy cleaning himself up behind them as it seemed, and instead nodded at Eren, signaling for him to go on.  
“He sprayed some up my nose, the little shit, and I chased him and then we somehow ended up…”  
“Jean, honey, that true?”, Marco asked, not even glancing over his shoulder. The following deep grumble was answer enough.

“You’re gonna clean this up”, Marco instructed with a firm voice, arms still crossed as he stepped closer to Eren. When he reached out with one hand to drag it through a wide smear across Eren’s chest his boyfriend didn’t even flinch. “Later.” He proceeded to suck the tip of his finger into his mouth, savoring the sweet, rich tang of cream. No matter how bad their rivalry got and how lost they were in their competitions, there was always one surefire way to get them to kiss and make up.  
“But right now I want you to towel off and meet me in the bedroom. Bring the cream.”  
Marco turned and left the room to the very assuring noises of both his boyfriends scrambling for towels.


	4. Ribbon

“Ugh, fuck this!” No not again…  
“Jean, wait – ” A loud ripping noise interrupted Marco’s objection as Jean proceeded to tear off the pristine wrapping paper and threw it onto the ever growing pile next to them.  
“It was looking perfectly fine!”  
“No it wasn't”, his boyfriend grumbled, reaching for the scissors to cut off another large rectangle of paper. “Creases everywhere and the tape was all skewy, I need to start over…” Blinking a few times, unbelieving, Marco stared at the other man kneeling beside him on the living room floor. Jean already busied himself with wrapping the box filled with bath bombs and lotions his sister would receive for what felt like the eleventh time this evening.

It was always the same, had been since Marco could remember and yet he tried and tried each and every time.  
They had long passed the stages of reasoning and bargaining but nothing would convince Jean to stop being a perfectionist with every single one of his presents for long enough that Marco could successfully stop him from tearing his latest masterpiece apart. As good as Jean was at this – and there was not a single doubt in anyone’s mind that he was something like the grandmaster of gift wrapping – as obnoxious he was. And there was nothing anyone could do about it. Especially not Marco with his too kind scoldings for Jean to please just think about all the resources he’s wasting.  
So he tried to at least drive down their costs.

With a tired sigh Marco reached for the pile of torn wrapping paper and pulled one of the pieces towards himself, carefully starting to pluck off the adhesive tape and spreading the paper across their carpet, trying to flatten out some of the smaller creases.  
It took him a while to cut it into the right shape, get rid of the tears and deeper creases and the process still left him with a lot wasted. But at least the piece of paper he got at the end was pristine and had just the right size to wrap a book he’d bought for his aunt.  
A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

They worked in silence for a while, Jean grumbling under his breath sometimes but not tearing anything off again and Marco working on reducing the size of the paper tower between them. Same as every year.  
Except that some time later, Marco had just finished wrapping his fifth gift while Jean was still working on the second one, the box for his sister, the apartment door opened down the hall.  
Light whistling, some festive tune or another, carried over to them and a few moments later Eren was rapping his knuckles against the door to their shared living room.

“Hope you’re finished with my stuff cause I’m coming in!” Marco gave a soft laugh and looked up from his work and toward the door that was slowly opening, Eren carefully poking his head inside though his eyes were still closed.  
“We’ve been finished since about five minutes after you left”, he answered and Eren’s eyes flew open as he slid into the room and closed the door again behind himself so the cozy warmth wouldn’t escape.  
“You’ve been finished”, Jean murmured, only partly concentrating on the other two men in the room as he was still carefully folding the wrapping paper around the box. “I wanted to start over.”  
“I know babe, but you always want to start over and you know Eren doesn’t mind…”

Eren gave an affirmative hum as he plopped down across from them on the other side of the gift pile, wrapped and unwrapped presents neatly stacked.  
“Don’t you wanna wrap your stuff?”, Marco asked, fighting with a tangled strip of adhesive tape and almost ruining one of his wrapped gifts when it got caught on the paper and he needed to peel it off carefully to not rip anything. Eren just shrugged, reaching for a box of chocolates he inspected before placing it back on the pile.  
“Did it last weekend when you were out doing your last shopping tour.”

“Eren”, Jean murmured and held out a hand, still caught up in his wrapping zone. “Ribbon.” Eren quickly found the small roll of crimson fabric and handed it over.  
“Last week? But we only just bought the wrapping paper yesterday…” Finishing up one of his last presents Marco stacked it onto the side with the finished gifts and leaned back for a moment, unfolding his long legs from underneath himself and turning to stretch them without kicking away tape or paper or presents. Across from him Eren shrugged nonchalantly.  
“I used a newspaper.”  
“You … what?”

“Newspaper. Who cares what it looks like, it’s what inside that counts, right? Or, the thought, if we want to get all poetic.” Eren made a wide gesture with his hand, slowly drawing it through the air as if to paint the thought that counted so much. “Point is, paper gets torn anyway, why should I buy something with the only purpose of it getting destroyed?”  
Marco gaped at his boyfriend for a moment then went to letting his gaze drift between Eren and Jean. How did he manage to end up in a house where no one had a healthy opinion on wrapping gifts?

“It’s about … making it look pretty for the person. Showing them you care about them and about the present…”  
Eren just shrugged again. Seemed like Marco got another hopeless case on his hands.  
“We got you to look pretty so I’d say I got that covered.” Before Marco could say anything about that or the shit eating grin on Eren’s face his thoughts were interrupted by another loud curse from Jean.

“Oh fuck!”  
Looking over at the present giving his boyfriend so many problems he couldn’t detect a single reason for the man to be upset. It was beautiful. Delicate folds creating an intricate pattern of dark blue and radiant green, making perfect use of the two toned wrapping paper. A deep red ribbon was wrapped around the box once and tied into a perfect little bow, a small note with the name of Jean’s sister in pretty, cursive handwriting tucked underneath it.  
“Jean I swear to god if you…”  
Too late. Jean was already tearing it off again, to the amused laughter from Eren. One day Marco would go mad. And it would be his boyfriends’ fault.


	5. Home

“Hey guys, can you – oh my god Marco what happened to your hair?” The horror in Jean’s voice was answered by a soft laugh that was distorted into a static rush over the connection.  
In his tiny square on Eren’s screen Marco reached up to tug at one of the bright red bows adorning his locks. There also seemed to be short little braids held together by sparkling clips and colorful bands.

“Told you Julie and Ally would be glad to have me back. They even gave me a manicure, see?” He almost sounded a bit proud when he held one of his hands into the camera, usually short-bitten nails filed smooth and painted in red and green, ring finger sparkling with an extra coat of golden glitter.  
“That … actually looks pretty good, your sisters could do that professionally”, Eren grinned, snatching a piece of gingerbread from a plate on his desk.  
Somewhere miles and miles away on the south coast of France Jean huffed a laugh, the proof on Eren’s screen in video and sound a split-second delayed, something they would have to make do with for at least another week.

“Looks like it took a long ass time to dry…”, Jean commented and Eren thought of afternoons spent painting his boyfriend’s nails black, years ago back in high school. How Jean had bitched and cursed when he managed to smudge the fresh paint each and every time because he thought it should have been dry already. Good memories.  
“Oh yeah”, Marco dismissed it with a flick of his wrist, then raised the manicured nails to his face to inspect them, carefully probed at one with his thumb. “They’re pretty much dry now but it took hours. We chatted all that time though, they did my hair and Ally fed me cookies when I couldn’t pick them up on my own.”

Eren could hear the honest serenity, the calm and ease in Marco’s words and he loved it. Loved how happy his boyfriend was, spending time with his sisters he’d missed so much.  
There was only one thing that tipped him off a tiny bit. The way he was talking with his voice all smooth and relaxed, there had to be that subtle, content spark in Marco’s eyes but the video was too grainy to really make it out.  
“But enough of my amazing fingernails, how was your day?” At least the soft smile made it across the connection, sending Eren’s heart into an excited little flutter and making him grin a little wider.  
“Jean?”, he signaled for his boyfriend to start, still nibbling on the gingerbread himself.

With a loud, drawn-out groan Jean let his head fall back against the dark headboard of the bed he seemed to be sitting on.  
“I will never. Ever. Eat anything. Again.” Snorting a laugh Eren had to slam a hand to his lips to avoid spewing crumbs all over his keyboard, Marco’s adorable chuckle ringing in his ears.  
“You know that’s a lie, Jean”, Marco giggled.

“I honestly don’t know right now…” It was almost a whine, one of Jean’s hands apparently rubbing his own belly. “One: It feels like I don’t have to eat ever again. Two: Nothing else will ever come close to tasting as good.”  
“Oh, so the famous grandma food struck you down then?” The only answer to Eren’s question was an affirmative little groan, then Jean rolled his head forward again to look back into the camera.  
“I love my mamie. You have to come with me visit her someday, she’s…”, he paused for a moment, sheepish smile stealing onto his lips. “She’s curious about you two and … about us. How we make it work…”  
Eren swallowed his mouthful of treat so he could gape at the screen for a moment. But Marco was recovering faster.

“You really told them?” It sounded more surprised than absolutely necessary, considering Jean had let them in on his plan of coming out to his family this Christmas. They had known he was bi for a while now, but nothing about his polyamorous relationship.  
“What did they say?”  
Jean just shrugged, then raised a hand to slowly scratch at his hairline.  
“Papa doesn’t get it but he also doesn’t really care. Maman just wants us to be happy, she says hello, by the way. And mamie … is really, really curious? Like, I had to tell her all about you two. Who you are, what you do, how long we’ve known each other, how we figured out we wanted to do the poly thing. I didn’t think she’d react like this but it’s really sweet…”

“Of course she’s sweet!”, Eren couldn’t keep his grin from stretching wider at his boyfriend’s words. “She’s a tiny, old, French lady! Also yes, let’s visit her. I wanna see that cute coastal village you told us about. You too, don’t you Marco?”  
“Hm? Oh, yeah. Yeah sure, let’s do that…” As if the small delay hadn’t been enough to get Eren worried, the sudden dull tang to those words managed that all on it’s own.  
“What’s wrong?”, Eren asked quickly, regarding Marco’s little square carefully. The wide smile had slipped from his boyfriend’s lips and instead there was a furrow to his brow now.

“Oh, it’s nothing…” Before either Eren or Jean could protest, Marco gave another quick wave and shook his head. “I’m just … thinking about telling them. But … I really don’t want to ruin Christmas for everyone.”  
Eren gave a soft sigh. That again. As much freedom and independence Marco had gained moving to Germany for college, he still couldn’t really be himself if he had to hide things like his sexuality from his family.  
He was from a small village in Tuscany where everyone knew everyone and traditions were the most important thing. Moving away not only to a bigger city but to a bigger city in another country had been big enough of a scandal to last for years. If it turned out he moved to be with his two gay lovers he’d probably never be allowed to set foot into the village again.  
Or at least that’s what he’d told them.

“Marco, baby…”, Jean’s voice was soft and careful, his expression concentrated but caring. “You don’t have to tell them. Don’t risk what you have with your family just to be honest about something they won’t understand. I mean, it’s your decision. But no one will judge you for keeping it to yourself, okay?”  
A deep sigh crackled across the connection and Marco nodded slowly, blinking a few times.  
“Yeah, thank you…” It physically hurt to not be able to touch him right now, hug him, tell him personally how everything would be fine and that he didn’t have to do anything he wasn’t comfortable doing, for no one.  
But Eren couldn’t do that right now so he just bit his lips and kept from making unnecessary comments.

“I think I’ll at least tell Julie and Ally. They won’t judge and even if they do, they won’t tell anyone else … that’s the least I could do, right?”  
Eren nodded, smile still weak but slowly growing again.  
“Yeah, that sounds like a good start. Don’t worry Marco, your sisters adore you, they won’t care about the gay.”  
Jean huffed a laugh but was quick to agree. Between some encouraging words and a little friendly teasing they got Marco to smile again pretty quickly.  
“Thanks guys, you’re the best”, Marco beamed, white teeth glistening between his lips. “Can’t wait to see you again.”  
Jean gave an affirmative hum, his smile soft.  
“Yeah, can’t wait to come back home.”


End file.
